1986 Volume 77 Issue 7 Pages 1164-1168
We have reviewed 80 new cases of renal cell carcinoma in patients treated at Tokyo University hospital between 1975 and 1984. Of these patients 5 (6.3 per cent) had cerebellar metastasis. Further analysis was carried out of these 5 cases in comparison with 8 cases of renal cell carcinoma with cerebral metastasis. There was a difference between these two groups in terms of the onsets of brain metastasis. In half of the cases with cerebral metastasis it was first metastasis diagnosed with routine examinations. Whereas all of the cerebellar metastases were preceeded by metastases to other organs.
The longest period of survival after the diagnosis of brain metastasis was 10 months in patients with cerebellar metastasis and 10 years in patients with cerebral metastasis. Only half of the patients with cerebral metastasis died within a year after the diagnosis of brain metastasis, while no patient with cerebellar metastasis survived more than a year.
Cerebellar metastasis seems to occur in the terminal stage of renal cell carcinoma and is fatal within a year. On the contrary, cerebral metastasis may not be critical in some cases when it is eradicated with meticulous surgery and adjubant chemotherapy. These informations may be helpful to deal with the formidable task in the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma.
